Trajectories of poverty and economic hardship among American families supporting a child with a neurodisability.

The study is observational, so it cannot show that a child's neurodisability causes family poverty or hardship. Neurodisability was based on parent report and did not include conditions such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and severity or age at onset were not measured. The analysis assumed caregivers interviewed were financially responsible for the child, and the survey could not link children to the specific adults financially responsible. State-level social assistance and welfare policies were not controlled, and factors that affect both economic circumstances and neurodisability status may have been omitted. Poverty and hardship results differed: official poverty trajectories were not significantly associated after adjustment, while hardship was, so the choice of economic measure matters.

The PSID data collection was partly supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, and the research was supported by a grant from the Kids Brain Health Network of Canada. The supplied text does not report author conflict-of-interest declarations.

Do not read the higher poverty and hardship rates as proof that a child's neurodisability causes family poverty. Families who later had a child with a neurodisability were already more likely to be poor before birth, and after accounting for family background neurodisability was no longer linked to poverty trajectories.